Gael García Bernal | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bernal at the2025 Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | (1978-11-30)30 November 1978 (age 47)[1] |
| Education | National Autonomous University of Mexico Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (BA) European Graduate School |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Darío Yazbek Bernal (half-brother) |
Gael García Bernal[a] (Spanish:[ɡaˈelɣaɾˈsi.aβeɾˈnal]; born 30 November 1978) is a Mexican actor and filmmaker. He is known for his performances in the filmsAmores perros (2000),Y tu mamá también (2001),Bad Education (2004),The Motorcycle Diaries (2004),Babel (2006),Coco (2017),Old (2021),Cassandro (2023) andMagellan (2025). On television, he portrayed music conductor Rodrigo De Souza in the seriesMozart in the Jungle (2014–2018), and starred as thetitular character in theDisney+specialWerewolf by Night (2022).
García Bernal was nominated for aBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of a youngChe Guevara inThe Motorcycle Diaries in 2005, and in 2016 won his firstGolden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy forMozart in the Jungle. He and fellow actorDiego Luna founded the production companyCanana Films in Mexico City. In 2016,Time magazine named him in the annualTime 100 most influential people list.[2] In 2020,The New York Times ranked him No. 25 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.[3]
García Bernal was born inGuadalajara,Jalisco, Mexico, the son ofPatricia Bernal, an actress and former model, andJosé Ángel García, an actor and director.[4] His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was young.[5] He started acting at just one year old and spent most of his teen years starring intelenovelas. García Bernal and frequent collaboratorDiego Luna were friends from childhood in Mexico City.[6]
When he was fourteen, García Bernal taughtindigenous people in Mexico to read, often working with theHuichol people.[7] At the age of fifteen, he took part in peaceful demonstrations in support of theZapatista uprising of 1994.[8][9]
He began studying philosophy atUNAM, Mexico's national university but, during a prolonged student strike, he decided to take a sabbatical to travel around Europe.[9] He then moved to London, and became the first Mexican accepted to study at theCentral School of Speech and Drama.[10][11][12] Bernal also attended theEuropean Graduate School toward a master's in media and communication.[13]
After García Bernal's success in soap operas, Mexican directorAlejandro González Iñárritu offered García Bernal a part in his feature directorial debut,Amores perros (2000). The film won rave reviews, and was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[citation needed]
His next role wasAlfonso Cuarón'sY tu mamá también (2001), which was a crossover success into American markets and gained him notice on the international stage, becoming the second-highest grossing Spanish language film in the United States.[14][15] The next year, García Bernal went on to portrayArgentine revolutionaryChe Guevara in the 2002 TV miniseriesFidel and the morally troubled Father Amaro in the Mexican box-office record-breakerEl crimen del Padre Amaro (2002). García Bernal again portrayed Che Guevara inThe Motorcycle Diaries (2004), an adaptation of a journal the 23-year-old Guevara wrote about his travels across South America. The film broke the box office record set 3 years prior byY tu mamá también, and garnered Bernal aBAFTA nomination in 2005 for Best Performance by an Actor.[16]
He also did some theatre work, during this time, including a 2005 production ofBodas de Sangre, byFederico García Lorca, in theAlmeida Theatre in London.[citation needed] García Bernal has worked for acclaimed directors including González Iñárritu,Pedro Almodóvar,Walter Salles,Alfonso Cuarón,Michel Gondry, and Iciar Bollaín, among others. He has taken on roles inEnglish-language films, including the Gondry-directedThe Science of Sleep andThe King, for which he earned rave reviews.[17]
García Bernal directed his first feature film,Déficit which was released in 2007.[18] He was cast in the 2008 filmBlindness, anadaptation of the 1995novel of the same name byJosé Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize, about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. As in the novel, the characters have only descriptions, no names or histories; while directorFernando Meirelles said some actors were intimidated by the concept of playing such characters,"'With Gael,' he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'"[19] García Bernal again paired with Diego Luna inRudo y Cursi directed byCarlos Cuarón.[citation needed]
García Bernal andDiego Luna ownCanana Films. The company recently joined with Golden Phoenix Productions to produce a number of television documentaries about the unsolved murders of more than 300 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.[citation needed] In May 2010, García Bernal did a cameo appearance as himself playingCristiano Ronaldo inRonaldo: The Movie for theNike advertisement,Write the Future.[citation needed]
In 2010, he co-directed with Marc Siver four short films in collaboration withAmnesty International. The tetralogy, called "Los Invisibles", is about migrants from Central America in Mexico, their journey and risks, their hopes, and what they can contribute to Mexico, the US and the world. He directed the movies, did the interviews and also narrates the four short movies.[20] He starred inEven the Rain (2010), Spain's official entry for the2011 Academy Awards.[citation needed]
García Bernal narratedHuman Planet for Hispanic audiences, which premiered onDiscovery en Español on 25 April 2011 and aired onDiscovery Channel in Latin America on 12 May.[21] For the third time García Bernal appeared withDiego Luna in the American Spanish-language comedy filmCasa de mi padre, oppositeWill Ferrell, where he played a feared drug lord.[22] García Bernal's next projects included a film adaptation ofJosé Agustín'sCiudades Desiertas and theJon Stewart directorial biopicRosewater,[23] in which he portrayedMaziar Bahari to widespread critical acclaim. He was set to star in the20th Century Fox reboot Zorro film calledZorro Reborn. The script is by Glen Gers, Lee Shipman, and Brian McGeevy.[24]
In April 2014, he was announced as a member of the main competition jury at the2014 Cannes Film Festival.[25] In June 2014, he began production as the star of the dramatic comedyZoom, directed by Pedro Morelli.[citation needed] In 2014, he was cast in the lead role of Rodrigo de Souza in theAmazon Studios comedy-drama television seriesMozart in the Jungle. His performance in the show was met with rave reviews, earning him aGolden Globe Award in 2016.[citation needed]
In 2016, he starred in two movies that were submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,Desierto (Mexico) andNeruda (Chile).[citation needed] In 2017, he was announced as a member of the U.S. Dramatic Jury at the2017 Sundance Film Festival. That same year, he provided the voice of Héctor, an undead trickster and one of the main protagonists of thePixar animated filmCoco.[citation needed]
García Bernal founded The Ambulante Documentary Film Festival,[26] which works to bring documentary films to places where they are rarely shown, and helped to create theAmnesty International Short Documentary Series Los Invisibles.[27] For this work, he was awarded theWashington Office on Latin America's Human Rights Award in 2011.[28]
In October 2019, García Bernal and Diego Luna announced they were joining the Creative Advisory Board for TV and Film development companyEXILE Content along withAdam Grant.[29]
In 2021, García Bernal starred in theM. Night Shyamalan thrillerOld.[30] In November 2021, Bernal was cast in theDisney+ specialWerewolf by Night byMarvel Studios, based onthe comics character of the same name.[31]
In 2024, he starred alongside close friend and frequent collaboratorDiego Luna in theHulu original miniseriesLa Máquina as the eponymous character.
In 2025, García Bernal starred asFerdinand Magellan in theepichistorical drama filmMagellan, which was directed byLav Diaz; the film was an international co-production between the Philippines, Spain, Portugal, Taiwan, and France. The film premiered at the2025 Cannes Film Festival and was announced as the Philippines' official submission forBest International Feature Film at the 98thAcademy Awards.[32][33][34]
García Bernal and Argentine actressDolores Fonzi met on the set ofPrivate Lives in 2001.[35] On 8 January 2009 their son was born in Madrid, Spain.[36][37] Their daughter was born on 4 April 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[38] As of 2015 he divides his time betweenBuenos Aires andMexico City.[39]
He has been in a relationship with Mexican journalist Fernanda Aragonés since 2019. They had a child on 30 September 2021.[40]
He has described himself as "culturallyCatholic but spiritually agnostic".[41]
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| † | Denotes productions that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | De tripas, corazón | Martín | Short film |
| 2000 | Amores perros | Octavio | |
| Cerebro | Iván | Short film | |
| 2001 | Don't Tempt Me | Davenport | |
| The Last Post | José Francisco | Short film | |
| Vidas privadas | Gustavo "Gana" Bertolini | ||
| Y tu mamá también | Julio Zapata | ||
| El ojo en la nuca | Pablo Urrutia | Short film | |
| 2002 | Fidel | Ernesto "Che" Guevara | |
| I'm with Lucy | Gabriel | ||
| The Crime of Father Amaro | Padre Amaro | ||
| 2003 | Cuba Libre | Ricky | |
| Dot the I | Kit Winter | ||
| 2004 | Bad Education | Ángel / Juan / Zahara | |
| The Motorcycle Diaries | Ernesto "Che" Guevara | ||
| 2005 | The King | Elvis Valderez | |
| 2006 | Babel | Santiago | |
| The Science of Sleep | Stéphane | ||
| 2007 | Déficit | Cristobal | Also director and producer |
| The Past | Rímini | ||
| 2008 | 8 | N/a | Director, writer and producer; Segment: "The Letter" |
| Blindness | King of Ward 3 | ||
| Rudo y Cursi | Tatto | ||
| 2009 | Sin Nombre | N/a | Producer |
| Mammoth | Leo Vidales | ||
| The Limits of Control | Mexican | ||
| 2010 | Los Invisibles | ||
| Letters to Juliet | Victor | ||
| Even the Rain | Sebastián | ||
| José and Pilar | Himself | Documentary | |
| 2011 | Miss Bala | N/a | Producer |
| A Little Bit of Heaven | Julian Goldstein | ||
| Casa de mi padre | Onza | ||
| The Loneliest Planet | Alex | ||
| 2012 | No | René Saavedra | |
| Vamps | Diego Bardem | ||
| 2013 | Paradise | - | Producer |
| Who is Dayani Cristal? | Himself | Documentary | |
| 2014 | The Ardor | Kaí | |
| Cesar Chavez | Himself | Cameo; Also producer | |
| Rosewater | Maziar Bahari | ||
| 2015 | The Empty Classroom | Narrator | Documentary; Also producer |
| Desierto | Moises | ||
| Zoom | Edward Deacon | ||
| Eva Doesn't Sleep | Emilio Eduardo Massera | ||
| 2016 | Madly | N/a | Director and writer; Segment: "The Love of My Life" |
| Neruda | Oscar Peluchoneau | ||
| Salt and Fire | Dr. Fabio Cavani | ||
| You're Killing Me Susana | Eligio | ||
| 2017 | If You Saw His Heart | Daniel | |
| Coco | Héctor Rivera (voice) | ||
| 2018 | The Kindergarten Teacher | Simon | |
| Museum | Juan Nuñez | Also executive producer | |
| The Accused | Mario Elmo | ||
| 2019 | Birders | N/a | Executive producer |
| Chicuarotes | N/a | Director | |
| Ema | Gastón | ||
| It Must Be Heaven | Himself | ||
| Wasp Network | Gerardo Hernández | ||
| 2021 | Old | Guy Cappa | |
| 2022 | This One Summer | Thiago | |
| 2023 | Cassandro | Cassandro | |
| The Mother | Hector Álvarez | ||
| 2024 | Another End | Sal | |
| 2025 | Holland | Dave Delgado | |
| Magellan | Ferdinand Magellan | ||
| Zero A. D. † | Joachim | In production | |
| TBA | The Ballad of the Phoenix † | King Terrowyn (voice) | In production |
| TBA | Nada Entre Los Dos | TBA | Post-production |
| TBA | Monkey Hill | TBA | Post-Production |
| TBA | The End of It[42] | TBA | In Production |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Teresa | Peluche | 3 episodes |
| 1992 | El abuelo y yo | Daniel García Medina | Lead role (90 episodes) |
| 2000 | Queen of Swords | Churi | 1 episode ("Honor Thy Father") |
| 2006 | Soy tu fan | Emilio | 1 episode ("¡Que viva México!") |
| 2014–2018 | Mozart in the Jungle | Rodrigo de Souza | Lead role (40 episodes) |
| 2021–2022 | Station Eleven | Arthur Leander | Miniseries |
| 2022 | Werewolf by Night | Jack Russell / Werewolf by Night | Lead role,television special |
| 2024 | La Máquina | Esteban "La Máquina" Osuna | Lead role, miniseries; also executive producer |
_(cropped).jpg)
| Year | Category | Title | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Best Actor (Mejor Actor) | Amores Perros | Won | [43] |
| 2017 | Best Actor (Mejor Actuación Masculina) | You're Killing Me Susana | Nominated | [43] |
| 2019 | Best Actor (Mejor Actuación Masculina) | Museo | Nominated | [43] |
| Year | Category | Title | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Best Actor | The Motorcycle Diaries | Nominated | [43] |
| 2006 | Rising Star | N/a | Nominated | [43] |
| Year | Category | Title | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Chopard Trophy | N/a | Won | [43] |
| 2007 | Caméra d'Or | Déficit | Nominated | [43] |
| Year | Category | Title | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Mozart in the Jungle | Won | [43] |
| 2017 | Nominated | [43] |
| Year | Category | Title | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Best Supporting Actor | Don't Tempt Me | Nominated |
Other honors
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Title | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Chicago International Film Festival | Best Actor | Amores perros | Won | [43] |
| 2001 | El Heraldo de México | Best Actor | Y Tu Mamá También | Nominated | |
| Venice Film Festival | Marcello Mastroianni Award (shared withDiego Luna) | Won | |||
| 2002 | Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain | Best Supporting Actor (Mejor Actor Secundario) | Don't Tempt Me | Nominated | [43] |
| 2003 | Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Most Promising Performer | The Crime of Father Amaro,Y Tu Mamá También | Nominated | [43] |
| Chlotrudis Awards | Best Actor | Y Tu Mamá También | Nominated | [43] | |
| 2005 | ACE Awards New York | Best Actor | The Motorcycle Diaries | Nominated | |
| Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain | Best Actor (Mejor Actor) | Bad Education | Nominated | [43] | |
| Chlotrudis Awards | Best Actor | Won | [43] | ||
| 2006 | Awards Circuit Community Awards | Best Cast Ensemble | Babel | Nominated | [43] |
| 2007 | Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Best Acting Ensemble | Nominated | [43] | |
| Alma Awards | Outstanding Actor – Motion Picture | Nominated | [43] | ||
| Chlotrudis Awards | Best Actor | The Science of Sleep | Nominated | [43] | |
| 2009 | Cinema Brazil Grand Prize | Best Supporting Actor (Melhor Ator Coadjuvante) | Blindness | Nominated | [43] |
| Premios Oye! | Popular Breakthrough of the Year | Rudo y Cursi | Won[44] | ||
| Best theme for a film | Nominated | ||||
| Mayahuel de Plata Awards | Achievement Award | Himself | Won | ||
| 2010 | Premios Juventud | Can He Act or What? | Rudo y Cursi | Nominated | |
| 2012 | Abu Dhabi Film Festival | Best Actor | No | Won | [43] |
| 2013 | Cork International Film Festival | Audience Award | Who is Dayani Cristal? | Won | [43] |
| Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | No | Nominated | [43] | |
| 2014 | Chlotrudis Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | [43] |
In January 2026 he was appointed as Officer of theFrench Legion of Honor by the French Government.[45]
| Year | Song | Album |
|---|---|---|
2007 | "Cristobal"(withDevendra Banhart) | Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon |
2016 | "Before The Sunset"(withCompass) | Compass |
| Year | Song | Album |
|---|---|---|
1992 | "Vagabundo" | El abuelo y yo |
| "Anselmo" | ||
2006 | "If You Rescue Me (Chanson des Chats)"(withSacha Bourdo,Alain Chabat andAurelia Petit) | The Science of Sleep |
2008 | "Quiero que me quieras" | Rudo y Cursi |
2010 | "A Morte De Pé Em Palco"(with José Saramago) | José e Pilar (Banda Sonora Original) |
2017 | "Everyone Knows Juanita" | Coco (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) |
| "Un poco loco"(withAnthony Gonzalez) | ||
| "Remember Me (Lullaby)"(with Gabriella Flores and Libertad García Fonzi) | ||
2017 | "Juanita" | Coco (Banda Sonora Original) |
| "Un poco loco"(with Luis Ánge Gómez Jaramillo) | ||
| "Recuérdame (Arrullo)"(with Lucy Hernández) |
